Utah has revoked the operating license for a boarding school where socialite Paris Hilton alleges she was abused as a teenager, citing the institution’s failure to provide "applicable health and safety services for clients."
The state’s decision, which became effective Monday, details numerous noncompliance issues against the Provo Canyon School’s campus in Springville.
The school now has 15 days to request a hearing with the Department of Health & Human Services. Citations, dating back to 2025, include failing to increase staff-to-client ratios, engaging in unnecessary restraint and aggressive physical contact with a client, neglecting care, and not verifying employee information or submitting timely background checks for applicants.
State health officials had previously imposed temporary restrictions in May after staff reportedly failed to seek immediate medical care for a student with serious injuries.
"For more than fifty years, children came forward with stories of abuse, neglect, and trauma," Hilton said in a statement released Tuesday. "Today, the state confirmed what survivors have known all along: Provo Canyon School failed the children in its care. I was one of those children. I know what it feels like to cry for help and believe no one is coming. Today, children still inside that facility know someone is finally coming to protect them."
Hilton, the hotel heiress and media personality, spent nearly a year at the school in the late 1990s. She has publicly alleged that staff members beat her, watched her shower, administered unknown pills, and subjected her to solitary confinement without clothing.
The 45-year-old has since called on Utah licensors to shut down the school, testifying about her experiences before Congress and state legislatures across the U.S., which has helped pass laws to protect teens in Utah and 15 other states. Utah has long been a central hub for the "troubled teen industry," a network of private, for-profit residential centers for adolescents with behavioral challenges.
Provo Canyon School did not immediately respond to an Associated Press email seeking comment. The state’s letter mandates that all services at the campus must cease by August 6. In June, Hilton returned to the school to support two families who had filed lawsuits alleging mistreatment of their children there. The school is currently under new ownership, which has stated it cannot comment on events predating the change, including Hilton’s time at the facility.
